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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Fabaceae
Acacia georginae

Citation: F. M. Bailey, Bot. Bull. 13:9 (1896).

Derivation: The name commemorates the Georgina River in south-western Qld from whence it was first collected.

Synonymy: Racosperma georginae (Bailey)Pedley, Austrobaileya 2:349 (1987).

Common name: Georgina gidyea

Description:
A stocky, gnarled or spreading tree 2-7 m high with a dense crown. Branchlets slightly angled, hoary with minute hairs and a scurfy, mealy bloom. Bark dark grey, rough, fissured.

Phyllodes 4-9 cm long, 5-12 mm wide, elliptic to narrow elliptic usually evenly tapered each end, with few prominent longitudinal veins; grey with mealy bloom and appressed hairs, apex acute to acuminate, base narrow cuneate. Gland basal, indistinct.

Inflorescences of 5-6 heads on compact racemes or occasionally reduced to a solitary peduncle. Flower- heads globular, 20-25-flowered. Flowers 5-partite.

Legume 6-13 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, flat, curved or coiled, reticulately veined. Seeds transverse to somewhat oblique, 9-10 mm long, 7-8 mm wide, funicle not greatly developed.

Distribution:  Only recently collected in the far north-east of S.Aust. in a low open woodland. More abundant in adjacent Queensland in part of the Georgina River basin. Cultivation. Though tolerant of torrid conditions A. georginae is rarely grown in S.Aust. Like A. cambagei the trees can be sickeningly malodorous particularly after rain.

S.Aust.: LE.

Flowering time: Not yet collected in flower in South Australia, but in adjacent N.T. and Qld it flowers between May and August with pods from September to December.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: No text

Related taxa: Closely related to A. cambagei (sp. 88) from which it is not always readily separated. The flowers of A. georginae are more densely pubescent, the legume broader and more twisted and the tree smaller.

Taxonomic notes: A. georginae contains fluoroacetic acid and is extremely poisonous to stock. As a result it is of economic importance in Queensland.

'Georgina' poisoning may seriously affect cattle and sheep production in the area in which it grows, Barnes (1958). Losses occur in the driest time of the year and in seasons in which the ground feed has dried off. The terminal symptoms are acute heart failure. The results of feeding trials showed that plant material from 11 sites was toxic and that from 4 sites was safe.

Everist (1981) describes and illustrates A. georginae amongst the poisonous plants of Australia. In this species the principal poisonous substances are fluoroacetates.

Author: Not yet available

Source:


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